[Nuzzolese]

Not quite as exciting as it sounds, but I just learned the hard way that you are legally required to move your car every seven days if it's parked on a public street, or else risk having your car towed away without warning.

I parked my car on the street, across from my apartment building. It was parked in front of a house. There weren't any signs or markings or anything indicating that you can't park there. People park up and down that street all the time!

I hadn't been using my car in a couple of weeks, but it was legally registered, insured, and everything was up to date and on code. I always checked it nearly every day for tickets, too. I don't see what the problem was.

Then, one evening as my boyfriend and I were leaving, we noticed that it was gone. We thought it had been stolen. We called the police and they said that an officer had towed it teh evening prior (I guess I didn't notice that it wasn't there that morning as I left for work, still groggy I suppose) because he or she had assumed it had been abandoned.

Down at the police station the desk lady told me that the owner of the house in front of which I'd been parked had called the cops and said there was an abandoned vehicle in front of her house. So, apparently without investigation, the officer towed it. That's when she informed me about that 7-day parking rule. She even seemed surprised that I didn't get a ticket warning me than they would tow it, giving me a day or two to move it.

I had to pay for the release from the police station, and then to get it out of the towing place the next day. Altogether it was $150 dollars. And I couldn't contest it because the PD's only option for contesting these things is that you can contest a ticket within 12 hours of getting it. I didn't even get a ticket in the first place, I got no warning at all. And they weren't even going to send me notice that the car had been towed after the fact, either. How is that not stealing my car?

I was so peeved, mostly at the police officer, also kind of at the person who called the cops. I bet they had friends at the police station.